a historic blizzard bearing down on the northeast right now. and here is a live look from one camera out over new york city right now and you can see the snow is falling and the cars are still out on the streets. they are not moving very fast. i'm here in the weather center. let's talk about what we have so far. >> we have about 3 to 5 inches north of new york. we have 3 inches in the bronx. winds gusting to 36 in new york. but this is not the main event. the main event is overnight tonight. so, let's start with the radar. we will widen this out a little bit. you can see the bands of snow starting to move in over coastal connecticut and into massachusetts. and into the hudson river valley. we are looking at probably hurricane-force winds along the massachusetts coast by late tonight. predawn hours of tomorrow. these are pretty heavy bands of snow moving across southern new

england right now. again, winds gusting to 41 miles per hour up into boston. the bulls eye is going to be east of 91, north of 90 and east of 495 up into eastern massachusetts and the northern and western suburbs of boston. again, they have a 495, too. west of that and north of the turnpike, we are talking about over 2 feet of snow. if this goes in boston, it will be in their top ten snows. we will come back and talk about one of the only effects this storm is going to have on us tonight. >> all right, topper. right now, new york city is under a blizzard warning and that could mean big trouble for the city that never sleeps. randall pinkston joins us from the big apple. what are you seeing out there right now? >> well, right now we are seeing people still moving around, traffic still moving also. of course, the big snow isn't expected to arrive until late tonight and so, stores are still open. some people are hoping to go to

a play. we'll see how that works out. earlier, the governor announced a state of emergency, says it will not be as bad as hurricane sandy, but bad enough. the blizzard is on the way. >> wet snow and sleet are creating a midday mess in manhattan as the big apple waits for what could be a foot of snow or more. >> 6 to 10. a good estimate and 10 to 15 in and around the city. the city right on that line. >> new york city plows and salt trucks are armed and ready to clear the city's almost 6,000 miles of roads. the storm will bring higher tides. >> many of the same communities that were in hurricane sandy's title sage, just about 100 days ago are likely to see some moderate coastal flooding this evening. >> many new yorkers are trying to leave work early. and then, they are the tourists. stuck in the storm, looking for a good time. >> doug watkins and his wife flew in, canceled flights kept

some family members from joining them, but they have plans. >> we have tickets for a show tonight, so we are hoping we can make it over there and back and maybe walking through snow. >> you think it is going to go on? >> we are hopeful. >> jeffrey and tracy young are here from connecticut, which is expected to get more snow. >> we are down here for a show and we had nonrefundable tickets. >> you are the second person i met that said they are here for a show. what are you hearing? is the show going to go on? >> i hope so. the show always goes on, right? >> even if the theater is closed, the blizzard and city should put on quite a show of their own. >> a long coastal areas, their predictions of wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour here in new york city. you know, no one wants a blizzard. if you have to have one, friday night into saturday is a good time because it gives you all of the weekend to dig out. we'll see how it goes. reporting live in new york, i'm

randall pinkston, back to you. >> time to hunker down. lesli. >> the storm is being blamed for dozens of cancellations at reagan and national. most of them, or i should say, reagan and dulles. most of them are for departures heading north. if you are planning to fly tonight or this weekend, any place toward new england, there's probably a good chance it's not leaving the ground. the storm that is now hammering the northeast, packed our area earlier today and many of you to the north and west of the d.c. area saw a little snow. this is some video from out in leesburg. the rest of us just had to deal with some messy rain. the storm has nothing to do with a massive power outage in parts of prince georges county. problem there, a large tree. it fell on power lines and camp springs and then in addition, a generator overcharged in capital heights and the fear of a possible explosion that led to the evacuation of a shopping center and 20 nearby homes. tonight, just a few hundred people remain without

electricity. >> this is going to be awful. people do not understand. >> that is senator mark warner and no, he's not talking about the snowstorm. he's talking about sequestration and he says it's a horrible idea and it needs to be stopped. the senior senator from virginia puts partial blame for the debt crisis and looming sequestration deadline on the defense industry and he says they have not been on board pushing congress to make some sort of compromise and now, on the brink of something truly terrible. peggy fox with the story. >> there was a stupid way and a less stupid way to do this. let's at least default to the less stupid way. >> he told a northern virginia technology council that congress deserves most of the blame for the debt crisis, but so do they. >> you aught to take some of the blame, too. because every time there's been efforts to try to build a broader coalition to say, let's go ahead and take this on and

get out of our individual, political fox holes and get out of our individual industry fox holes. most of you have said, well, i don't want to make this guy mad. >> a long list of ceo's who are part of the fix the debt council, mixing are most defense contractors. >> back in july, hosted a large stop sequestration rally. since then, the massive defense contractor headquarters here in fairfax county, has said very little, if anything, publicly about the debt crisis. >> the large fortune 500 company, the industry that was most absent from that list was the defense industry. >> at the mid sized federal contractor, the chief strategy officer heard warner's speech as a call to action. >> much better for us to have a decision made and then allow us time to organize and respond to that and no decision whatsoever. >> senator tim kaine is

advocating to eliminate sequestration and go back to the ordinary budget process. >> we have a democratic senate and republican house. we are only going to fix it if democrats and republicans work on it together. >> not going to get fixed without recognizing that no category is going to get spared from some additional cuts. >> what we have now is the worst. >> in reston, peggy fox, wusa9. >> and the chairman replied with a statement to our questions today. we quote, we urge the congress and administration to work together on a solution to avoid sequestration's devastating impact on the economy. bush and other industry leaders are planning a press conference on the topic on monday. anita. the annapolis mother accused of killing her own two- year-old daughter says she did it because the child was possessed with a muslim curse. >> that is according to some newly released police documents. chelsea booth says the toddler's father placed a curse

on little cassidy. she said she laid on top of the little girl, smothered her, and dumped her body. after an all-night search, cassidy's body was found in a railroad car that was heading to a landfill. that former police officer accused of killing three people, including a cop, is on the loose tonight. more than 100 officers are scouring the southern california mountain town of big bear looking for christopher dorner. l.a.p.d. fired dorner back in 2008 saying he falsely accused a fellow officer of using excessive force. the other two victims are the daughter and fiance of that fellow officer. the nagging horse scandal is turning into a criminal investigation in britain. this comes after some lasagna was found to contain 100% horse meat. officials given all food companies one week to test their beef products for traces of horse meat. and coming up in your only local news at 7:00, find out which unemployed politician is actually favored more than the

president. that's at 7:00. >> see you then, derek. still ahead in this half hour, how does a 50-mile walk wearing your dress shoes sound in robert f. kennedy's famous footsteps for a historic walk. and up next, will virginia be the next state to legalize pot? a man who hopes to be the next governor has some interesting things to say. we'll be back.

ken takes a tough stand against abortion rights and a tough stand against gay marriage. but maybe there is wiggle room there. he is virginia's attorney general and he is hoping to be virginia's next governor. this week, the republican told students at the university of virginia he has no problem with states such as washington and colorado experimenting with marijuana laws. he said his own views on legalizing marijuana are quote, evolving. >> the utility that powers the new orleans superdome is taking responsibility for the outage that hit during the super bowl. still, that company blames the partial blackout on an electrical relay. it installed the device to prevent an outage, but it didn't work right. the company that made the relay said the relay was fine, it just wasn't properly installed. still ahead on wusa9. >> robert f. kennedy set out on a remarkable walk along the

cno canal path. it says a lot about his will and how much the country lost when

50 years ago tomorrow, robert f. kennedy set off on a remarkable walk. 50 miles from d.c. to harper's ferry, west virginia, in dress shoes. bruce leshan reports, tomorrow at 4:00 in the morning, starting at great falls tavern, a group plans to do it again in better shoes. >> oh heaven's yes. >> the memory of bobby kennedy's spirit still brings tears to a man who walked with him. >> yup, he lost a life. >> a country is as strong as its citizens. >> it started as a dare from his brother, the president, who thought the troops aught to be fit enough to march 50 miles in three days. >> he said why not in one day? and jack said okay, give you a try. >> a few friends and at 4:00

a.m. on february 9, 1963, they set off walking down the cno canal toe path for harper's ferry, 50 miles away. >> he didn't say 50 miles, he just said, we're going to take a walk. >> in dress shoes. >> an icy day, very cold. >> the group made it about 26 miles on sheer loyalty and determination. around point of rocks, they all sat down pretty much convinced they couldn't go any further. >> the helicopter came right over our head and three or four reporters and cameramen. bobby got up and he painfully put on his loafers again and trudged off on his own. >> about 11:00 p.m., rfk turned up at camp david having trudged the entire 50 miles. >> he would never quit of anything. >> i hope all americans will be on the field. >> the walk inspired a craze. everybody started trying to walk 50 miles in a day.

but nine months later, jfk was murdered. five years later, rfk was assassinated. and james simmington still dreams of what might have been. >> he was a remarkable guy. >> bruce leshan, wusa9. >> now if you want to take the hike in dress shoes or hiking shoes, you can meet the group tomorrow at 4:00 in the morning at the great falls tavern visitor's center. it is near potomac at the very end of mcarthur boulevard and the cno canal national historic park. you can call tonight's health segment a soft cheese alert. the risk of getting food poisoning from soft cheeses. they are more likely to be contaminated with listeria bacteria, which can be dangerous to seniors, children, and pregnant women. the new review finds the risk is 50 to 160 times higher in

soft cheese made from raw or unpasteurized milk. know how it's made before you take a bite. the worst of this year's flu season should be over for most of the nation in two to three weeks. the cdc says west coast flu activity may stick around longer. influenza slammed the east coast in late december. the strain, h3m2 caused most serious illness and hit elderly hard. more than 50% of the complications and deaths in older people. >> yeah. >> got to get that flu shot. >> you do. perfect example. >> the storm, i'm looking at radar trends, it may be going east. not quite as bad in new york, but boston is in the cross hairs. maybe a little better in northern new jersey, but eastern connecticut, rhode island, they are still hammer time. let's start with a live look outside. it's our michael and son weather camera.

and temperatures are not going to fall dramatically. so it's going to get a little colder tonight. 42. have some clouds. the dew point is above freezing, so we need some dryer air to move in here before temperatures fall too much further. we are going to get that. winds out of the northwest at 9. that's the dry wind. that begins to pick up. they will usher in colder and dryer air. temperature wise, 38 in bethesda. 37 in rockville. still 40 in reston and in fairfax. down towards springfield. it's 40 in waldorf. 40 at andrews and 39 over in bowie. 39 also in annapolis. all right, here's a look at the radar. you can see the heaviest bands of snow across eastern long island and coastal connecticut. also just about all of rhode island now. the storm itself is far away. as far as we're concerned, a couple showers pushing through tonight. maybe we see a snow shower as colder air moves in. probably not, but we will give you a chance of a snow shower

tonight. here are the wind gusts. 32 at providence. 46-mile per hour wind gusts in boston and 59-mile per hour wind gust in nantucket. the highest winds will be at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning. for us, showers for the commute home. a few wet roads. winds pick up tonight after midnight. windy and colder tomorrow. milder and very nice on sunday. lots of sunshine and temperatures not quite 50. tonight, mostly cloudy, windy, colder, shower or snow shower possible. winds 15 to 30 and gusty. especially after midnight. by morning, 20s and 30s. partly cloudy, windy, and cold. winds are still 15 to 30. you need to dress for the teens and the twenties in the morning. by afternoon, colder. still sort of windy. winds northwest 10 to 20. high temperatures near 40. good news is, mostly sunny skies. all right, next three days, our 9 weather alerts will be green. looking at 39 tomorrow.

almost 40. returning mostly sunny and windy. 47 on sunday. that's pretty nice. a few clouds come in late and mild with showers on monday. temperatures in the low 50s. right now, we're going to keep monday, a green alert. we'll monitor that. next seven days, great tuesday. just a gorgeous tuesday. temperatures in the low 50s with sunshine. more rain on wednesday. could end in snow wednesday night or thursday. we'll watch that carefully and then even in the wake of that, not that cold. back in the low 50s next friday. >> that little flake there looks nice. >> it does. >> slowly, but yes, it looks nice. >> we're going from the super bowl to spring training already? >> it doesn't stop. hopefully it's 50 degrees hotter there. that's where i'll be. >> we're heading out to spring training next week. some very smart people think the nats could be better than they were last year? is it possible? they won 98 games. the reason you should be pumped if your a nats fan. you should also be pumped if your a wizards fan. i'll explain that after the

break and why you probably should not if you're a cap fan. times are tough for the guys skating around on the ice. next.

now, here's dave owens at the wusa9 cadillac sports desk. >> john wall for nbc? before you start laughing at me, hold on. consider this. the wizards are 5 and 28 without him. 8-7 with. now he's not winning the mvp, but quite honestly, they are

competitive. they will be more competitive tonight because bradley is back. their rookie was playing good basketball. this was the scene yesterday at practice. beale, we're going to get to him. shooting jumpers. making sure his wrists -- he injured it against the kings. we spoke to him after practice. he said i hate sitting on the sidelines, and hopefully coming back i don't disturb the group. >> it's tough. i mean, i'm not going to come back and win -- i did a terrific job playing together. so hopefully keep it up. >> this is motivation. i just know i have to keep working on my game. you are going to hear everything the critics say. you use it as motivation. it can be good. >> that is john wall talking about the critics of him and of his team and how it motivated him during his knee injury. remember he missed 33 games.

i spoke with him one on one thursday. hear why he says, hey, wizards fans, the best is yet to come to see that interview in its entirety online at wusa9.com and watch it sunday on game on overtime. all right, who is at the top of the baseball power rankings? your washington nationals. that is if you believe. getting to the world series. the publication also says the top 14 in baseball all reside in the national league. spring training, believe it or not, beginning next week. all right, on to hockey. after last night's loss, the caps have the worst record in the league. gm addressing reporters today, says don't blame my new coach. blame the players. it's their fault. but, he also said he's not blowing up this team. >> all right, finally, don't forget to join us back here tonight for our game of the week. ladies hoops, it's going to be a good one tonight. we had a lot of voters online. looking forward to the ladies

playing a game tonight. >> absolutely. >> sounded off. you will respond. >> i will respond. >> that's it for us, the cbs evening news is next.